Manuring of Crops. 



363 



cially too much nitrogen and potash. This resulted in a 

 flaggy, soft growth that was hard to ripen thoroughly, and 

 apt to go down. At the same time the sheep were often on 

 the land so late that the early sowing necessary for the best 

 barley could not be secured : the folding, too, left the land 

 uneven. In the experiments upon this crop made by the 

 South-Eastern Agricultural College they had tried if they 

 -could not improve the quality and stiffen the straw by using 

 superphosphate to balance and make an all-round manure ot 

 the nitrogen and potash the sheep gave back to the soil. They 

 had attained a certain measure of success — for example, the 

 gold medal barley at the Brewers' Exhibition of 1900 con- 

 tained 63 per cent, of starch and V2 per cent, nitrogen ; the 

 second prize 62 per cent, starch and 11 per cent, nitrogen, 

 whereas the average of twenty-one barleys grown after roots 

 ■showed only 58 per cent, starch and 1*55 per cent, nitrogen. A 

 dressing of 3 cwt. per acre of superphosphate was always 

 found to reduce the proportion of nitrogen and slightly 

 increase the starch. Tried on a large scale the improve- 

 ment was manifest to the practical man, and the barleys 

 that had been grown with superphosphate were valued at from 

 2S. to 5s. per quarter more than those without. Salt, on the 

 contrary, always made the barley worse ; less starch and 

 more nitrogen was the result. As regards the straw, the 

 superphosphate did not help, but the lecturer considered the 

 experiments had shown, both on a small and large scale, 

 that a dressing of 3 cwt. per acre of superphosphate produced 

 a paying return both in the yield and the malting quality of 

 the barley grown after roots. 



Manurial Requirements of Different Crops. 



The Department of Agriculture and Technical Instruction 

 for Ireland have recently issued a leaflet (No. 17) dealing 

 with the applicability of different manures according to the 

 kind of crop to be grown. It is pointed out that, although 

 good crops can be grown with artificial manures alone, the 



